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Post-Mortar - The Retail History Show
Genre	History
Created by	Alex Nuelle
Opening theme	"Branches" by Dan-O
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of episodes	24
Production
Running time	>20 minutes
Original release
Release	May 15, 2020 – present

Post-Mortar - The Retail History Show (stylized as post.mortar) is an ongoing YouTube web series that focuses on the histories of defunct retail companies, created, hosted, and produced by Alex Nuelle. The name is a combination of the show's tagline, "a postmortem for brick-and-mortar." The full title is "Post-Mortar - The Retail History Show," which often omits the tagline when shown in full. Notable companies covered on Post-Mortar have been Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, Toys "R" Us, Waldenbooks, KB Toys, and F.W. Woolworth. The series premiered on May 15, 2020, and has been lauded for its research and production quality by viewers, other "retail historians," as well as former employees of topical companies. This praise and support are seen wherever episodes are shared, and in video comment sections. The channel currently has over 3,000 subscribers. Nuelle has been the writer, editor, producer, and narrator for every episode. Select episodes are also available in podcast format on Spotify, Apple Music, and Google Podcasts.

Inception and Premiere

It all started in 2019, when Nuelle drafted a "one-off" video essay about the history of Blockbuster Video, covering the rise and fall of the company. The name "Post-Mortar" was also created. After his Spring 2020 college semester ended, he was granted more time to work on the Blockbuster script. It was released in two halves. The first episode, titled, "How Blockbuster became a video rental giant," was released on May 15, 2020, to very positive reception. Nuelle said about the video, "As far as I've seen, this is the most in-depth video about the inception and rise of the chain."

After this, Post-Mortar evolved into a series. It has dove into a wide range of other companies, from well-known chains to the more obscure. The show tends to focus on chain stores that have either never been covered on YouTube, or have little representation online as a whole. This strategy has seen some success.

Episodes

There are currently 24 episodes of Post-Mortar. The first episode was uploaded to the YouTube channel of the same name on May 15, 2020. The series began with "How Blockbuster became a video rental giant," a 10-minute video essay originally meant to be a single video. Many other videos in a similar style followed, covering subjects from music theory to film analysis, featuring Bouncing Off the Satellites by The B-52's, the movie Clue, and an early student film of James Rolfe's. At peak times, Nuelle has released new episodes of Post-Mortar almost every month. The channel was subsequently renamed after the show. After a short hiatus in mid-2021, the show came back with "Waldenbooks: Eight Decades in Reading." After that, video releases were more consistent. Following the release of "Crestwood Plaza: The Ultra Mall That Had It All" in September 2022, there was a break in uploads until March 2024, with the release of "Ann & Hope: The Original Discounter."

List of episodes

No. in series	Title	Company	Original release date
1	"How Blockbuster became video rental giant"	Blockbuster LLC	May 15, 2020
2	"Toys R Us: The Life and Death of a 'category killer'"	Toys "R" Us	May 23, 2020
3	"Venture Stores: The Forgotten Midwestern Giant"	Venture Stores	June 12, 2020
4	"The History of Child World / Children's Palace"	Child World	July 28, 2020
5	"Caldor: Where Shopping is Always a Pleasure"	Caldor	September 14, 2020
6	"Famous-Barr: The Merger of a Lifetime"	Famous-Barr	November 3, 2020
7	"Service Merchandise: The Death of the Showroom"	Service Merchandise	January 25, 2021
8	"Babbage's: Before GameStop"	Babbage's Etc.	March 12, 2021
9	"How Blockbuster Died"	Blockbuster LLC	April 15, 2021
10	"Waldenbooks: Eight Decades in Reading"	Waldenbooks	Aug 19, 2021
11	"Grandpa Pidgeon's: Discount's Last Stand"	Grandpa Pidgeon's	September 5, 2021
12	"Sound Warehouse: More Than a Record Store"	Sound Warehouse	November 8, 2021
13	"Hollywood Video: The Story of Second Place"	Hollywood Video	November 26, 2021
14	"The History of Kay-Bee Toys"	KB Toys	December 7, 2021
15	"Sam Goody: An American Music Standard"	Sam Goody	originally: December 20, 2021 re-release: October 26, 2022
16	"The History of Ames"	Ames	January 3, 2022
17	"F.W. Woolworth: From Nickels to Billions"	F. W. Woolworth Company	January 16, 2022
18	"CompUSA: The Death of a Tech Giant"	CompUSA	March 31, 2022
19	"Jamesway: When Kitsch Gets Out of Hand"	Jamesway	May 15, 2022
20	"McKids: When McDonald's Opened a Store"	McKids	June 14, 2022
21	"Rickel: The Origins of Do-It-Yourself"	Rickel	July 10, 2022
22	"Ann & Hope: The Original Discounter"	Ann & Hope	March 27, 2024
23	"A&P: Just Around The Corner"	A&P	October 24, 2024
24	"Zayre: The Best Was Yet to Come"	Zayre	November 17, 2024

"Malls" and Other Projects

In May 2022, Nuelle announced a secret sister series, stating, "The series will focus on a specific part of brick-and-mortar retail history. It will aim to bring the same detail and quality of Post-Mortar to a new subject." It was announced in July 2022, shortly after the channel surpassed 2,000 subscribers, that this new series would be about the history of shopping centers, titled simply "Malls." Co-writer is Rasheed Stevens, who runs a similar YouTube channel called Underground Retail. The pilot episode was about the history of Crestwood Court, one of America's oldest shopping centers. It was titled "Crestwood Plaza: The Ultra Mall That Had It All" and was released on September 30, 2022, after a delay due to scheduling conflicts. Nuelle and Stevens contacted Mark Zorensky, son of one of the brothers who opened Crestwood Plaza back in 1957, to help draft the final video. Nuelle said, "[Zorensky] gave very helpful input..." The video has the unique distinction of being the only documentary about the prolific shopping center. It has since been very well received.

John F. Geisse Documentary

Shortly after the release of "Venture Stores: The Forgotten Midwestern Giant," which covered a small portion of the career of the company's founder, John F. Geisse, Nuelle was contacted by his son, Thomas Geisse, who praised the video. The Geisse Family were very pleased with the video, and offered their help in any related future projects. It wasn't until 2021 that Nuelle began brainstorming a video dedicated to the late Geisse. The production began in Winter 2021. Thomas assisted in cowriting and drafting the final script. The short documentary was titled "The Forgotten Target Founder: John Geisse," and went public on Monday, February 21, 2022. It gave a detailed account of the life and professional career of John Geisse, the only visual piece to do so. It explored how his revolutionary discount strategies created Target and Venture, and influenced an entire industry. It also explored his close friendship with Walmart founder Sam Walton, who called Geisse "a pioneer in innovative retailing concepts..." The video conveys that we should tout Geisse as one of the 20th century's greatest businessmen, and that his obscurity is a disservice to his legacy. Nuelle says he had also been in contact with Target Corp. in regards to adding Geisse as "co-founder and creator" in their company histories, as the chain started from a 1962 business report written by Geisse.